Epigraphs in the English Novel 1750–1850
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A01=Corrina Readioff
Author_Corrina Readioff
canonicity
Category=DSB
Category=DSK
epigraphs
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
intertextuality
novel
quotation
reception studies
Product details
- ISBN 9781399516051
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2025
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Seducing the Reader uncovers the early history of the epigraph, narrating the surprising story of how this long-overlooked feature morphed from moral didactic heading to Gothic tag-line to witty realist commentary within a single century. Adorning fictional narratives of rakes and sex workers, oppressed heroines and Jacobite heroes, the epigraph has been used by authors to preach, teach, amuse, or even completely misdirect their readers. Supported by a survey of pre-chapter paratext in nearly 6000 novels from 1750 to 1850, this monograph explores the changing influences upon and functions of epigraphs over time via detailed close readings and literary criticism. Focusing upon key generic developments, this book adopts a case-study style format to examine epigraphic usage in the works of canonical authors including Sarah Fielding, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, Walter Scott, and Elizabeth Gaskell alongside those of less well-known novelists such as William Chaigneau, Elizabeth Helme, and Catherine Gore.
Dr Corrina Readioff is an Honorary Associate at the University of Liverpool and specialises in eighteenth and early nineteenth century literature. She has published articles with the Review of English Studies, Swift Studies, and the Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies; in 2019 she co-founded the Eighteenth-Century Paratext Research Network. She is also a Contributing Editor to a volume of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift and is co-editing the Oxford History of Poetry in English Vol 6: Eighteenth-Century Poetry with Professor Christine Gerrard.
